IN STEP WITH BOSTON OUT FOR A WALK IN A CITY WELL-SUITED TO IT.

Byline: Story by Eric Noland Travel Editor

BOSTON - When some anti-tax activists decided to make a statement by dumping chests of tea into Boston Harbor, they faced only a short walk from their meeting house to the wharf.

When Paul Revere needed to get to the boat that would carry him across the Charles River, there to watch for lantern signals in the Old North Church, he did so on foot.

Now as in the 1770s, Boston is pleasantly compact - arguably the best city in the nation for walking. It was founded nearly 400 years ago on a small thumb of land, and although the edges have since been packed with fill dirt, the city is hemmed in to this day by the Charles River, Boston Harbor and the Fort Point Channel - water features that have confined its sprawl.

The 21st-century tourist benefits considerably from this. From the city center, a visitor can readily survey a wealth of Revolutionary sites on the Freedom Trail or wander down the cobblestone alleys of Beacon Hill to plumb a heritage of literature, abolitionism, art and architecture. A short ride on Boston's impressive transit system can access the shops and sidewalk cafes of the Back Bay, or, across the river in Cambridge, the ivy-draped solemnity of Harvard University.

The cooler days of fall - and the onset of the foliage season - make Boston ever more appealing. So, lace up your most comfortable pair of shoes and enjoy any of these city walks:

Freedom Trail

The pages of your elementary school textbooks spring to life on this stroll into the heart of Revolutionary America.

At the Old South Meeting House, you can imagine Samuel Adams and the other Sons of Liberty grumbling over the injustices of the Tea Act; they were keenly aware that ships laden with the stuff were just a few steps away at Griffin's Wharf. Near the Old State House, a red-brick hall that is now miniaturized by the modern office towers around it, you can stand on a busy traffic island and picture British soldiers firing into a savage mob - an event that would come to be called the Boston Massacre. And you can gaze up at the belfry of the Old North Church, recalling the ``one if by land, and two if by sea'' lyrics of Longfellow's famous poem.

The urban trail covers 2 1/2 miles from Boston Common to the summit of Breed's Hill, where a decisive battle was mistakenly named for nearby Bunker Hill. The route, which encompasses a rich store of remnants from America's early history, is easy to follow: A red stripe marks the sidewalk.

The first step should be to pick up the official guide to the trail at the Boston Common Visitor Information Center. But don't just confine your exploration to the historic sites listed therein. There are a number of hidden treasures along the way - some having nothing to do with Revolutionary Boston but intriguing nonetheless.

At one corner of Boston Common, for example, is a memorial devoted to Robert Gould Shaw and the members of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment - the first African-American volunteers to see combat during the Civil War. Their story was told in the movie ``Glory.''

Unfortunately, the monument does a much better job of celebrating Shaw than the men who risked everything under his command - the names of the black soldiers who died in an unsuccessful assault on South Carolina's Fort Wagner are listed on the back of the memorial.

One block away is Park Street Congregational Church, which was built after the revolution, but this is where fiery anti-slavery speeches were heard, where the first missionaries were dispatched to Hawaii (listed as the Sandwich Islands on a stone plaque), and where the hymn ``America'' was first sung.

The Granary Burying Ground next door is aswarm with tourists during the day - not surprisingly, since it holds the graves of Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock and the victims of the Boston Massacre.

But far fewer visitors linger down the street at the King's Chapel graveyard. It harbors the remains of William Dawes, who rode with Revere but missed out on immortality when Longfellow left him out of the poem. Elizabeth Pain also lies here, although her grave was missing its headstone (crumbled with age? stolen?). She is said to be the real-life person on whom Nathaniel Hawthorne based the sad character of Hester Prynne in ``The Scarlet Letter.''

The Freedom Trail passes through or near some intriguing neighborhoods, and you don't have to stray far from the red stripe to enjoy them.

For example, once you cross into the North End, en route to the Old North Church and Revere's old house, take some time to savor one of the most richly ethnic neighborhoods in America. This is where Boston's Italian immigrants settled in the early 1900s, and they still embrace it warmly.

Detour off the Freedom Trail and head up Salem Street (you can catch the official route, Hanover Street, on the return) to find small Italian meat markets, grocery stores, cafes and pastry shops.

On our visit, three older men had set up lawn chairs in the street - to observe the work at a construction site in comfort. A scratchy transistor radio played 1950s crooners. A restaurant door man engaged a customer in a flurry of Italian. An elderly woman sat at a makeshift stand, selling her homemade lemonade.

Not interested in touring Revere's house (it looks as if it might tumble over at any minute) and not permitted to climb into the belfry of the Old North Church (``It requires going up ladders; liability concerns,'' said a church staffer), we headed down to the river bridge and crossed to the Charlestown shore.

The Bunker Hill Monument commanded only a few minutes of our time. A gentrified Irish neighborhood was infinitely more interesting, inspiring some aimless wandering down quiet, leafy streets lined with superbly restored historic town houses.

Beacon Hill

Boston's history is so rich and far-reaching that sometimes it can be a little intimidating. You walk along narrow Pinckney Street in this neighborhood just north of Boston Common and stumble on a small, unassuming plaque on the side of the residence at No. 20. It informs you that this was author Louisa May Alcott's girlhood home. It wasn't mentioned in any of our guide books.

At other intervals are the former homes of artist John Singer Sargent and ``Battle Hymn of the Republic'' author Julia Ward Howe.

Beacon Hill, Boston's most exclusive neighborhood, is a walker's delight: a warren of streets and alleys, lumpy brick sidewalks and a pleasant surprise around every corner.

Head down Smith Court to the African Meeting House, now a museum chronicling its 19th-century stature as a hub of anti-slavery activism. It was here that Frederick Douglass recruited soldiers for the 54th Regiment and William Lloyd Garrison rallied apathetic New Englanders to the cause.

Douglass' autobiography notes that escaped slaves were in peril even upon reaching the North because slaveholders would send kidnappers to haul them back. At the end of Smith Court is a narrow alley, down which runaways ducked to elude their pursuers.

Another discovery was Acorn Street, as narrow as an alley. It was built to be just wide enough for two cows to pass (per 1825 decree) and is still paved with cobblestones.

On Chestnut Street, at No. 29A, your eyes are not playing tricks on you - purple windows? Turns out a London glass manufacturer mistakenly put too much manganese in the mixture. But the ``purple panes'' wound up becoming a status symbol around here, since they let your neighbors know that you could afford the expensive imported glass.

Cambridge

In the office where the campus tours originate, a sign promised that they would be ``led by loveable Harvard students''; any Cal State grad probably knows that the preferred spelling is lovable. On the tour itself, our guide, a June graduate named Joe, kept referring to important persons as ``illuminaries''; the word does not exist.

So although a Harvard undergraduate education will set you back upward of $150,000, and there are annually 20,000 applicants for 2,000 freshman spots, a degree from here is obviously no guarantee of brilliance.

But the campus sure is pretty. It's well worth taking a short ride from Boston on the MBTA's Red Line to wander among all those bricks, all that ivy, all that exalted academic history.

The most-asked question by camera-toting tourists, we were told, is, ``Where is the Harvard sign?'' There isn't one. (Presumably, if you can't find the school without the benefit of one, you don't belong here.)

Unfortunately, visitors aren't permitted in massive Widener Library. But we were led into the churchlike Memorial Hall, where secular stained glass windows list optimal student virtues: discipline, patience ... uh, temperance.

Be sure to swing by the Fogg Art Museum while here to peruse an impressive collection of American paintings, plus a strong presence by the European Impressionists. How many American universities can boast an art museum of this caliber? Maybe that tuition is warranted after all.

Back Bay/Fenway

An even more impressive art collection can be found at the Museum of Fine Arts, a short distance from the baseball shrine that is Fenway Park.

This is quite a repository for the art that still graces the pages of history books, from John Singleton Copley's portrait of Paul Revere to Gilbert Stuart's frank renderings of John Adams and Josiah Quincy. A Revere silver set is exhibited, too.

The customary route through the museum ends with a flourish in a high- ceilinged room loaded with the work of Renoir, Monet, van Gogh and other acclaimed European artists.

Later, to savor the best of the Back Bay, stroll the length of Newbury Street. Here you'll find a wondrous array of stores dispensing music, jewelry and art, as well as sidewalk cafes serving ethnic cuisine, plus a lot of Mary Poppins architecture.

If you're returning to the center of the city, you'll find yourself back at Boston Common before you know it.

As in all of this city, the walk is a short one.

Eric Noland, [phone]

eric.noland(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO

GETTING AROUND: Do yourself a favor and pick up a visitor pass for Boston's MBTA subway. They cost $6 for one day, $11 for three days, $22 for seven days and provide unlimited travel on the system, which runs to and from the airport (Massport shuttle buses/Blue Line) and out to Cambridge (Red Line). Even though Boston is a great walking city, you don't want to wear yourself out. With the MTA, you can ride to a particular area and save your energy for an exploration. Passes are available at Logan Airport, at the Boston Common Visitor Information Center and at some ``T'' stops.

FREEDOM TRAIL: Stop first at the Visitor Information Center in Boston Common, near the intersection of Tremont and West streets. The trail starts here, so this is the place to invest $7.30 on the ``The Complete Guide to Boston's Freedom Trail.'' Alas, it hasn't been updated in 13 years, but the history on this walk doesn't change, and the book is an invaluable resource for a self-exploration. It would be great if the National Park Service visitor center were here, but you don't run into it until you're well along the trail, next to the Old State House.

The park service conducts ranger-guided walking tours. In the fall, they're offered weekdays at 2 p.m., weekends at 10 and 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., weather permitting. Tours are limited to 30 people - but that still means an unwieldy mob must crowd along the narrow sidewalks and strain to hear the commentary. Free tickets are handed out beginning 30 minutes before each tour. Information: [phone]; www.nps.gov/bost. Other walking-tour options, conducted by guides in period dress, are offered by the for-profit Freedom Trail Foundation. Information: [phone]; www.thefreedomtrail.org. Another option is an audio tour. Devices are rented at the Boston Common visitor center for a cost of $12 for the first rental, $10 for each additional adult rental, $6 for kids.

Be advised that you can be nickel-and-dimed at every step of the Freedom Trail. Separate admissions are charged at the Old South Meeting House ($5), the Old State House ($5), Paul Revere's house ($3) and for a film at the Charlestown Navy Yard visitor center ($4). It's a good idea to pick your spots - the interior configuration of the Old State House bears no resemblance to colonial times, for example, so there's less need to step in there.

HARVARD TOURS: Free one-hour walking tours of the campus form at the Harvard Events & Information Center, which is in the Holyoke Center, 1350 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. It's about a half-block east of the ``T'' (subway) stop. In fall and winter, the tours are conducted at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and at 2 p.m. Saturday. Information: [phone]. Pamphlets for self-guided walking tours are available here for $2.

OFF THE SHELF: There is no definitive Boston guide book, but we were well-served by National Geographic Traveler's ``Boston & Environs'' ($22.95). It offered a detailed walking tour of Beacon Hill. Also helpful was the ``Access'' guide to Boston ($19.95) because it breaks the city down into neighborhoods, as it does with all of its city guides.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Tourists on Boston's Freedom Trail make their way up Copp's Hill from the Old North Church - where the lanters were hung for Paul Revere. Top left, the crumbling headstones of the Granary Burying Ground make the graves of such patriots as Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Revere. The Freedom Trail is one of many great walks.

(3) Ivy clings to an imperious brick gate at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. But don't bother looking for a sign.

(4 -- 5) An 1825 Boston city ordinance required that streets be wide enough ``for two cows to pass,'' and Acorn Street on Beacon Hill, below, just complies. Beneath the Boston skyline, boys hone their sailing skills.

(6) no caption (building)

Eric Noland/Travel Editor

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IF YOU GO (see text)